WASHINGTON.— Jeanette Núñez, born in Miami to a Cuban family, is lieutenant governor of Florida, co-chair of the group Latinos For Trump, and one of the speakers who will praise the president at the Republican Convention this Tuesday.
Florida is a key state in the presidential elections on November 3 (with 29 of the 270 minimum electoral votes to reach the White House), and the Latino vote, and especially the Cuban vote, carries great weight despite growing cultural diversity .
But polls indicate that Donald Trump, who won there in 2016, is tied or behind Democrat Joe Biden this time around.
To reinforce the president, the Republican Party is insisting during the convention that began Monday on the danger posed by Biden for his allegedly socialist ideas.
In this case, socialism is not understood as in Europe, where social democracy ensures essential rights for citizens (this is also defended, for example, by Senator Bernie Sanders), but as the authoritarian regimes of Cuba and Venezuela presume to be.
Núñez hopes to be able to tell the story of his family before the Republican Convention: “How my parents came to the United States. fleeing communism in 1961 in Cuba, in search of freedom and the opportunities that this great country offered them ”.
In his opinion, Biden would impose in case of winning the elections "socialist issues" such as the elimination of private health insurance or the right to bear arms.
Biden, known for his centrist positions, does not support the elimination of private insurance, but rather the extension of Medicare and the protection of the 2010 health reform, known as Obamacare.
Regarding the right to arms, it is enshrined in the Constitution so that no president can unilaterally change it. But Biden does not support its elimination either, but more controls to reduce violence.
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Aug. 16, 202002: 14Latinos make up more than 20% of the electorate in Florida, according to the Pew Research Center. Trump has strong support among the Cuban community, while Puerto Ricans (who arrived after Hurricane Maria in 2017) seem more inclined towards Biden.
There is also a growing community of Venezuelan exiles, but so far the Trump administration, despite claiming to be an enemy of the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, has not approved any relief measure for these immigrants, such as a Temporary Protected Status (TPS). , in English)
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There are also 24,810 Dreamers living in Florida, in addition to another 76,000 undocumented youth eligible for DACA, which remains in effect thanks to a Supreme Court ruling.
Núñez denies that Trump has turned his back on the Dreamers, even when the president eliminated DACA and later, when the Supreme Court annulled his decision, decided to restrict this right even against a judicial decision.
“I think this president is not that he has turned his back on the Dreamers; He has said on several occasions that he is willing to reach a solution, that he is willing to work with Congress, ”Núñez said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo hours before his speech.
Although she was not always a Trump supporter (in the 2016 primaries she supported her friend, the Republican senator from Florida, Marco Rubio), her transformation and now a key position in the Latinos for Trump group is due to the policies that he promotes.
“After Mr. Trump won the nomination, I was excited to see what he was going to do for this country. I know there are many people who do not like what he says on Twitter, "he stressed, but in his opinion Trump is the one who can protect security, freedom, and" a prosperous future "for the country.
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Aug. 14, 202000: 37In addition to Núñez, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was part of Trump's defense during his impeachment in Congress, will also deliver a speech to the Republican Convention. On Monday, Florida State Senator and GOP Chairman Joe Gruters formally seconded Trump's nomination for a second term.